TROUBLED || thirteen reasons why

013.

Caroline and Tristan stand by their lockers, joking about the boy Caroline had met at her job this past weekend. Their third period has just ended, and they were shoving papers into their binders for their report due in Honors English class. Tristan notices that Justin and Zach are standing across the hallway talking, and when she mentions it to Caroline, her friend shrugs it off and says that it's nothing.

Tristan tries to agree and ignore the two boys just a few feet from her, and she smiles at Caroline who is sowing her a picture of the brunette boy she had met. The two shut their lockers and are about to start heading to class when Tristan hears a voice shouting over the others, "Oh, wait, everyone! It's Justin Foley and Zach Dempsey, star basketball players here at Liberty High."

Tristan whips her head around and sees Clay Jensen herding a group of students into the hallway. His voice is dripping with sarcasm and Tristan glances over at Justin, who looks almost nervous. Clay starts talking again, "Hey, Justin, where's my bike? Justin stole my bike."

Tristan's eyes narrow at her brother, and doesn't know if she should believe the words coming out of Clay's mouth, but with how Justin has been acting lately, she would be a fool not to. Justin knows that his sister is staring at him, but he ignores her and instead moves closer to the Jensen boy, "What the fuck? What are you doing?"

"I'm giving our new foreign exchange students a tour. Figured they should know who owns the school, right you guys?" Clay's sarcasm continues and Tristan's eyes glance at Caroline who is just as much confused as she is. Zach glares at Clay, telling him to knock it off. "Right, right. Moving on. Where were we? Right, the auditorium! Oh, but before we go... I wanna show you something super cool."

Courtney grabs his arm, but Clay maneuvers out of it and heads straight to Hannah's old locker. Caroline and Tristan exchange looks again, "Look at these lockers. They all look alike, right? Not this one. This one is special, it belonged to a girl who killed herself. You see all these 'don't kill yourself' posters up on the wall? They weren't up before, they put them up because she killed herself. And why did she do it? Because the kids here treated her like shit! But no one wants to admit it, so they paint over the bathrooms and put up a memorial, because that's the kind of school that this is. Everyone is just so nice until they drive you to kill yourself. And sooner or later the truth will come out. It's gonna come out."

The hallway is completely silent, and Caroline grabs Tristan's cold and clammy hand. Clay has lost it, but his words echo in her mind. The truth will come out. What does he know? Tristan's heart starts to pound in her chest.

"Clay." Everyone's head turns towards Mr. Porter, who is racing to Clay. "I think you should come with me right now. Get to class, everybody. All you, get to class."

"Welcome to Liberty High," Clay scoffs as people start to shuffle out the doors, ready to spread the new gossip. Caroline and Tristan stand in the hallway, next to Justin and a few of his friends.

"Okay. New game." Justin says before he glances at his friends and walks off. Tristan tells Caroline that she'll meet her in class and run to catch up with her brother.

"Hey," She says. He hears her, but doesn't turn around. Tristan grabs his arm and jerks him towards her, "I said hey."

"What, Tris? Get to class." Justin spits and tries to walk past her, but she blocks him off.

"What the hell was Clay talking about? Did you steal his fucking bike?" She questions, desperately trying to get answers from the closed off boy in front of her.

Justin lowers his eyes before he elbows Tristan to the side, "I'm not going to say it again, Tris. Get to fucking class."

He quickly moves past her and she stands in the hallway, watching him walk away.